Where Tarkovsky Meets Spider-Man

Art-house cinema The Projector turns 10

- Carmen Sin

Indie cinema The Projector, stomping ground of hipsters and bankers alike, marked 10 years in business on Jan 25 with 340 people lobbing spoons at the big screen.

Flying cutlery, toilet paper and water guns are tradition at the theatre's riotous interactive screenings, which in its early years also included uncooked rice – before staff "got smart" about clean-up.

These – along with music gigs, comedy, drag and even Web 3 nights – make up the thousands of events that have turned the picture house into a motley cultural agora.

Since its fringe beginnings at Golden Mile Tower, a 1970s building better known for its Thai discos, it has opened a second permanent branch at Cineleisure, Orchard.

From having to bang on doors for the licensing rights to screen films – including some five long years e-mailing zeitgeisty production house A24 – it now takes regular distributor pitches and exclusive deals.

Staff has tripled from below 10 to near 30.

Its success is in part due to a resolute philosophy of what long-time staff designer Mirza Ja'afar calls "agnostic" hosting.

One night, a punk band performed while an LGBTQ-themed film played in the next room. Afterwards, the two sets, sullen and flamboyant, mingled at the foyer, said Mr Mirza.

"We get a kick out of that juxtaposition," co-founder and chief executive Karen Tan told The Straits Times.

In 2014, the 44-year-old former investment banker had seen in the dusty halls of the old Golden Mile Tower cineplex a chance to recreate the voltaic energy of Shoreditch, London – a site of "unexpected community" she had frequented while working in Britain.

She had by then already built a career out of turning neglected older spaces into stylish new ones. The refurbishment moved quickly and, in 2015, The Projector opened as a two-hall vintage cinema.